Lancaster student competes in global ‘Great Debate’ which drew audience of 15k

Kelsey Bricknell, a Year 12 student at OneSchool Global’s Lancaster Campus, was joined by fellow students from OneSchool Global’s worldwide network of schools as they debated on current topics such as whether Artificial Intelligence is a threat to human potential and creativity.

For the second round, students also explored whether students who fail an assessment should get to retake it.

The ‘Great Debate’ event was broadcast virtually across OneSchool Global’s network of 120 schools, with campuses in the USA, Australia, France and Italy all tuning in.

Kelsey secured her position on one of the final teams after competing in regional and national hustings, receiving praise from judges for her effective debating style.

She then joined a team of four fellow OneSchool Global students from across the world, all from the international equivalent of Years 11 to 13.

The first Great Debate was organised by OneSchool Global last year, to give its students the opportunity to work with fellow students across the world and to help them boost their collaborative skills and public speaking abilities. Following its success, the second edition was even greater, with a record number of people tuning in.

Kelsey said that she was grateful to get the opportunity to work together with fellow students from across the world and get the chance to learn from their unique debating styles.

Speaking in front of such a large audience was certainly nerve-racking she added, but it only pushed her to do her best.

Zoe Neesham, Campus Principal at OneSchool Global’s Lancaster Campus, said: “I was really impressed by Kelsey’s persuasive arguments, especially regarding Artificial Intelligence. It is great to see our students being so knowledgeable about such important current day topics and to watch them speak so confidently in front of a global audience. It was fantastic to see Kelsey progress from the regional and national debates to the international stage and her brilliant performance made all of us at the Lancaster Campus very proud.”

Caroline Gray, OneSchool Global’s Regional Principal for Lancaster, said: “At OneSchool Global, we put emphasis on teaching our students how to learn and their excellent performance at the Great Debate is testament not only to their independent thinking skills, but also to the excellence and dedication of our teachers.

“It was great to see students from across our international school network, including Kelsey Bricknell from the Lancaster Campus, working so well together as a team and defending their positions with such strong arguments.”

OneSchool Global is a global school network, with 9,000 students in more than 120 campuses in 20 countries.

The school prides itself on its innovative approach to learning, driven by technology-empowered physical and digital learning environments.

OneSchool Global schools are attended by families of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church.

The church community shares a strong working relationship with the teaching and administrative staff from the school who are not members of the church community.